1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of RPR (Resilient Packet Ring) type networks, and more precisely to a method for implementing an OAM (Operation, Administration and Maintenance) function through the exchange of request-reply packets between the stations of a RPR network, and the relevant packet frames.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Through the IEEE Standardization Institute, a new technology according to the Standard IEEE 802.17 RPR (Resilient Packet Ring) is being standardized, which technology is ndesigned to optimize the use of available bandwidth for transporting packets in ring networks, hereunder called RPR networks, in particular in the context of MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks) networks, e.g. generally described in the article “Resilient Packet Rings for Metro Networks”, Global Optical Communication, Pag. 142-146, authors N. Cole, J. Hawkins, M. Green, R. Sharma, K. Vasani, available for public on the Internet site http://www.rpralliance.org/.
The ring technology can be based for example either on SDH, Sonet or Ethernet transport physical layers, wherein the RPR networks packets are physically transported.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a known RPR network is based on a dual counter-rotating rings configuration, respectively identified as inner ring and outer ring. Both the rings are used to carry data and/or control frames of RPR packets between a series of RPR stations. A RPR packet is meant as a layer-2 frame of the known ISO-OSI or TCP-IP stack. The RPR control frames packets are fit for developing the so-called RPR functions of “topology discovery”, “protection switching” and “bandwidth management”.
The “topology discovery” function is based on a mechanism which is used by RPR in order to allow every station on the ring dicovering and localizing all the other stations and their distances. When a RPR station inserts a new RPR frame packet on the ring, it selects the inner or outer ring in order to follow the shortest path towards the RPR destination station, in terms of number of RPR stations to be passed through, according to the network topology.
The “protection switching” function allows to ensure the so-called “resiliency”, namely the protection capacity at RPR packet level, by taking actions within a determined time (50 ms) from the fail detection. In case of failure in the RPR network, the RPR packets controlling the “protection switching” function are used to implement an APS type protocol (Automatic Protection Switching). Both the protection mechanisms of “wrapping protection”, basically similar to the traditional SDH MS-SPring system but applied in the RPR level) and “steering protection”, basically similar to the transoceanic NPE but applied in the RPR level, can be supported.
The control RPR packets for bandwidth management in the RPR ring are used to ensure a fair access to the ring between the various RPR stations independently from their physical location in the ring.
The RPR technology allows for spatial re-use of the bandwith by supporting the “destination stripping” function: that is a unicast RPR packet is removed from the ring by the RPR destination station, without the need to travel in the whole ring, thus the remainder path will be available for re-use. On the contrary, the multicast or broadcast or unicast RPR packets, whose RPR destination station is not on the ring, can be subjected to the “source stripping”, that is they are removed by the same RPR source station after having passed through the entire ring. A so-called “time to live” procedure, namely a time lapsing procedure, is also used to ensure that the frames do not circulate forever.
Even if RPR has not yet been fully detailed in the Standard activities, the RPR frame format comprises a header section and a payload section. The payload section contains the upper layer information to be carried. The header, on the contrary, contains at least the following fields:                ID address of RPR destination station;        ID address of RPR source station;        protocol type, in order to identify the upper layer information carried in the payload;        “time to live” TTL, in order to avoid that RPR packets circulate forever;        Ringlet ID, in order to indicate the outer or inner ringlet path over which the frame has been inserted;        CoS, in order to identify the class of service for the RPR frame, that is its priority;        frame type, in order to distinguish between user data RPR frames, RPR control frames or other RPR specific frames.        
In the RPR field, there is the need of introducing additional functions such as OAM (Operation, Administration and Maintenance).
As the RPR transport technology is “connectionless” (that is the sending of RPR packets does not require a connection at RPR level), it is not possible to use in RPR the already known OAM procedures, already known in the SDH or Sonet fields, which are based on the information exchange at connection level.
In the “connectionless” field, the so-called “Ping” mechanism, used in the IP (Internet Protocol) networks, is already known. The Ping mechanism, on the contrary, shows the problem that the reachability between two IP stations is checked only according to the standard communication path between the two stations already chosen by the network.